What Caused the Ramen Love?
by Eothr Si'lan
Summary: Just a short little one-shot about Naruto and Team 7 having lunch at Ichiraku's, and the question of Naruto's obsession with ramen coming up. A little fluffy, and slightly pointless, but needed to set this plot bunny loose. Rated T, and just the minimal hint of NarutoxAyame if you look hard enough.


Eothr: Maa, maa. This is going to be a bit of an experiment, as this will be my very first foray into Naruto fanfiction…and pray it doesn't get lost amongst the 300,000 other entries on the site. Now, I've read a vast horde of Naruto stories in my time, but I have yet to deliberately read a story that focuses on Uzumaki Naruto and Ichiraku Ayame, so this is a test of faith; in other words, I'm hoping that this idea isn't floating around out there in Naruto fandom, and I'm not just posting a hackneyed plot bunny.

Summery: One day after their morning training, Naruto convinces the other members of Team 7 to have lunch at Ichiraku Ramen. His teammates and sensei question the blond knucklehead's infatuation with the delectable confection, and are regaled by both Naruto and Ayame of the twos' first meeting and Naruto's very first bowl of the food of the gods—Ramen. Please note, this technically takes place before Episode 101 of Naruto, _Kakashi's Real Face_, since this is supposed to be the team's first time eating at the Ramen bar. Rated T for safety, with a hint of NarutoxAyame, if you squint just right.

Disclaimer: Characters and themes of _Naruto_ are the property of Kishimoto Massashi. My soul and ideas are the property of my Muse, Rhea'Onna vas Ninpou nar Tsuchi.

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What Caused the Ramen Love?

It was a bright, sunny day in Konohagakure, the Village Hidden Amongst the Leaves, home of the eccentric and elite members of the shinobi military forces of Hi no Kuni, the Land of Fire. The hustle and bustle of the ninjas and civilians throughout the village cast a happy din that illustrated a lucrative and prosperous economy. Among the throng of villagers was a quartet of notable shinobi.

These shinobi were the genin team known as Squad 7; the orange-clad, hyperactive blonde Uzumaki Naruto, who was practically skipping down a dusty street in a good mood; the brooding, black-haired Uchiha Sasuke, who kept his hands in his pockets while looking disinterested; the chipper, chattering Haruno Sakura, her long pink hair swaying as she tried to gain her crush's attention; and the sole adult of the group, the silver-haired, cycloptic Hatake Kakashi, whose single eye focused on a telltale orange novel, crinkled into a signature eye-smile.

The grinning maelstrom child was babbling excitedly at his teammates, "Ne, ne, ne! You guys are gonna love Ichiraku's! They make the best ramen ever! And Teuchi-jiji and Ayame-nee-chan are really cool, too! They'll love you guys!"

Sakura took a moment to sigh in exasperation as she addressed her blonde companion, "Naruto! We get that you like it! Now stop bothering us!" The pinkette then tried to once again get Sasuke to notice her; she failed spectacularly. The Last Uchiha instead turned to look at his "rival", to the cherry blossom's dismay.

"I don't know how you got sensei to agree to it, be we _are_ having lunch with you, at _your_ request. So settle down, dobe." The broody male smirked at the irate squawk from the midget shinobi. It was so very easy to rile up the idiotic knucklehead sometimes; really, it was almost criminal.

The jounin sensei cleared his throat, catching the attention of the bickering children, "Now, now, there's no need to fight. You two agreed to let me pick where we were going for team lunch, and Naruto was the one who swayed me with his excellent advertising of Ichiraku-san's. So, just swallow your pride and graciously accept that we're going to have ramen for lunch."

Naruto grinned in appreciation of his squad leader's negotiation skills, the subdued replies from his two teammates sweet music to his ears. They turned the corner that led to the destined ramen bar, and the excited orange-clad shinobi shouted in joy, rushing past the curtains of the entry way. Two irritated pre-teens and an eye-smiling scarecrow followed.

"Jiji! Ayame-nee-chan! Look who I brought!" The smiling boy shouted, jumping up on a stool at the counter. Behind it, a middle-aged man and a teenaged girl with brown hair turned to look at the loud-mouth ninja. Both were wearing cream-white aprons with the characters for "Ichiraku Ramen"; the man had a short white chef's hat on, while his daughter wore a bandana to keep her hair back. The two Ichirakus smiled at the boy.

"Well! Welcome back, Naruto-kun! Who are your friends?" asked the jovial Ichiraku Teuchi. Ayame nodded along with her father's question. The youth looked back and presented his team, "This is my team, Squad 7! That's Sakura-chan, Sasuke-teme, and Kakashi-sensei! We just got done with our training for the morning, so we came here to eat!"

Kakashi smiled at his student's enthusiasm before waving to the ramen stand owners, "Nice to meet you." His other two students followed suit, "Naruto spoke very highly of your skills in making ramen, so please take care of us!"

"Hm. He did, huh? Well now, Naruto-kun, as thanks for your excellent advertising skills, how about a discount today?" the teen girl asked, her smile radiant. Her father gave a short nod in agreement. The look of adoration on Naruto's face was rather startling to the other genin of Squad 7.

"YATTA! Thanks a lot, Ayame-nee-chan, Teuchi-jiji!

Both Teuchi and Kakashi chuckled at the boy's antics while Ayame giggled into her hand; the other two members of Squad 7 tried to save their broken eardrums. Naruto was bouncing in his seat, the aroma of the frying noodles and vegetables making him drool. The other shinobi sat beside him, with Kakashi to his immediate left, Sasuke and Sakura to his right. Ayame wrote down their order before turning to help her father with the meals.

Sakura looked beyond Sasuke to give her blond teammate a skeptical look, "Naruto, what's so great about ramen, anyway?" While she might have expected an explosive outburst of incredulity and a tirade about 'the food of the gods' (and, really, she _was_), she could _never_ have expected the somewhat snide leer as the boy's azure eyes narrowed to slits at her.

"Maa, Sakura-chan, that's like asking 'what's so great about Sasuke?'"

Kakashi hid a giggle as his most adorably unpredictable student endured the withering glares with fantastic disinterest; oh, how proud he was of his student's "hip" attitude when he was able to get one over on his teammates. A chortle from the two ramen cooks clued the jounin in that they agreed with him. How amusing!

The self-proclaimed Avenger calmed himself as he addressed Naruto, "Okay then, smart-ass, _why_ is ramen so great?" And, once again, the orange-clad shinobi surprised his fellow teammates, this time with a look of annoyance.

"Tch. That's like asking '_why_ is the Sharingan so great?', teme." The shortest shinobi had to dodge a few semi-murderous swipes from two way-too-serious genin; really, why were they asking him such obvious questions? And also, they were being quite rude to him as he was waiting _very_ patiently for his meal.

Kakashi, catching on to the little prank, decided to settle things down before any collateral damage could occur; he had to eat too, after all, "Well then, Naruto-kun, _who_ showed you that ramen was so great?" At the beaming look given to him by the boy, the man knew he had helped him along with the joke, if the incredulous looks from his other two students were indication.

"Ah, now that's a good question, Kakashi-sensei!" The youth looked forward as a steaming, extra large bowl of miso ramen was placed before him by the female half of the Ichiraku staff, "It was Ayame-nee-chan!" Said girl offered a radiant smile to teacher and apprentice, which caused the ever perverted Cyclops to blush just a little bit. As the other three bowls were served, and before Naruto could practically dive into his bowl (which might have fit him, given how small he was), the scarecrow asked again, "And _when_ did Ayame-san show you that ramen was so great?"

There was a bit of a stunned silence; both Naruto and Ayame looked a little lost in their memories, sharing a look as Teuchi looked behind his shoulder at them. Both Sasuke and Sakura perked up at the silence, their curiosity winning out over their anger at the blond knucklehead.

The blond boy gave the brunette girl a surprising gentle smile, "Ne, Ayame-nee-chan…that was a long time ago, huh?" Ayame returned his smile with a nod of her head, "Do you wanna…?" She closed her eyes briefly before nodding again, "Sure, Naruto-kun. You go ahead and eat." Naruto grinned once before digging in, though with less gusto than normal.

Ayame turned to the others, their attention on her rapt with anticipation, "It was about six years ago, now…"

_(Flashback)_

_It was a rainy day as 12-year-old Ichiraku Ayame trudged home from the grocery store, bags of produce in one hand and umbrella in the other. It wasn't stormy out, but the rain was heavy and it had rained the day before, too. Shinobi were working on clearing out flood paths to keep the village from filling up with water. Her father insisted that they opened today, to give those who needed to work in the weather a place of warmth and good food. His ramen always made people happy, and one day she would make ramen that was just as good as his._

_As she approached the building behind the ramen bar, she noticed a small movement and a splash of yellow in the alleyway. Approaching cautiously, the young girl was startled to see a small boy, probably no older than six, rummaging through the trash dumpster behind their house. His blue shorts were torn and dirty, and what little she could see of his white tee-shirt was mostly brown. He looked to be completely soaked. As he pulled out of the dumpster, he was startled to see her staring at him. He had the most beautiful blue eyes, in her opinion._

_He turned to run, but slipped in a puddle and fell face first into muddy water. She rushed over to hold her umbrella over him, for what good it did his drenched form, "Are you okay?"_

_The young boy looked up fearfully, as if she was scary, "A-A-Are y-you going t-to hurt me?" He was shivering, but at the moment young Ayame couldn't tell if it was because he was cold or scared. She gave him her gentlest smile before shaking her head slowly, "Of course I'm not going to hurt you. But why are you here? Why aren't you with your parents?" She immediately regretted that question at the look of hurt on his face._

"_Don't h-have any…the orphanage locked m-me out when I d-didn't make c-curfew three nights ago…" the poor child's teeth chattered as he stood up, holding his arms to his torso beneath the brunette girl's umbrella. His face was covered with dirt and his blond hair was sopping wet. He looked very skinny and his skin was pale; he looked very ill, in fact. Ayame felt a bubble of righteous anger at the stupid adults as she regarded this defenseless child; the nerve of some people!_

_Gently, she crooked the handle of her umbrella between her elbow and shoulder, and pressed her free hand on his shoulder, taking notice of the flinch at her action, "Come inside. We'll get you warmed up with a bowl of my Tou-san's famous ramen."_

_As she led the boy out of the alley, he looked up at her with wide eyes, "Ramen? What's ramen?" To which she only smiled, "Something you'll love. I'm Ayame, by the way, Ichiraku Ayame. Nice to meet you."_

_The young blond looked confused for a moment before replying, "Uzumaki Naruto."_

_(End Flashback)_

Naruto finished his tenth bowl as Ayame came to a stop, his smile warm and happy, "And that was how I came to know Ayame-nee-chan and Teuchi-jiji!"

Kakashi nodded, having heard the story from the ANBU operative in charge from that day. The other two had pensive looks on their faces as this new tidbit of Naruto's elusive past was coming to light; it painted a surprisingly different picture than what the boy's actions normally would assume. The elder Ichiraku hummed, bringing attention from his daughter to him, "Aye that was when we first came to know young Naruto-kun, and his insatiable appetite for my ramen."

The boy offered a sheepish grin, accepting another bowl from Ayame, a beef ramen this time. Ayame smiled in response, before her father got a mischievous glint in his eye, "But then, there's what happened _after_ he had his first five bowls…"

Both Ayame and Naruto went stiff, giving Teuchi pleading looks; the assembled Squad 7 leaned in to catch up on this juicy gossip. "I made the comment that the boy needed to have a bath before he could get sick, and I _volunteered_ Ayame to clean him up, since _she_ brought him home…"

_(Flashback)_

"_No!"_

"_Naruto-kun"_

"_I ain't gonna!"_

"_You have to take a bath before you can have any more ramen!"_

"_I DON'T WANNA!"_

"_NARUTO-KUN!"_

_Needless to say, feminine persuasion won out over masculine stubbornness. The young Uzumaki settle himself into a small tub that had been set up with warm water, while his clothes were cleaned and dried. He would have gotten away with just rinsing himself off, if Ayame hadn't barged in to wash him herself._

"_AYAME-NEE-CHAN! WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?"_

"_Making sure you don't try to weasel out of this. Don't worry, I've babysat before; I've given children baths." She chuckled at his outrage of being compared to "babies". She then made sure to rub shampoo into his hair, amidst his groans of protest, leaving the lather to sit as she took a washcloth to his face. Removing the dirt, she was pleasantly surprised to find three little whisker marks on each cheek; he looked very foxy like that. The girl was very gentle as she washed and rinsed the boy, who seemed to calm down since the bath's start._

_They shared light conversation, with Ayame promising him that there were many kinds of ramen combinations to choose from, and he'd get to look at all of them. He smiled at that, thanking her for being so kind, to which she said, "You're welcome."_

_Then, to the boy's infinite horror, she reached down with her washcloth to the unmentionable region, shouting out, "AYAME-NEE-CHAN!"_

_-Ch-Click!-_

_Ayame and Naruto were frozen, as Ichiraku Teuchi stood in the doorway with a camera, locking the moment forever in time._

_(End Flashback)_

"JIJI!" "TOU-SAN!"

The two were red-faced as all the others laughed loudly, even the usually calm Kakashi, who was clenching his stomach as his laughs escaped him; oh, how gloriously unpredictable his student was, even his past stories!

As the whole ramen stand settled down, Naruto glared a bit at the old man, his cheeks still red, "That wasn't funny, Teuchi-jiji." To which the old ramen chef only chuckled, "Well, wait until you find a nice girl; I've got the evidence that shows who got to third base with you first!"

This of course led to more shouts of outrage from Ayame and Naruto, a fierce blush from Sakura, and uproarious laughter from the remaining males. There was also a muffled –thump!- from outside the stand, but no one paid any attention to it. As the stand calmed down, Naruto put a hand to his chin in a contemplative manner before smacking it into his open palm, "Oh that reminds me! Hey, Nee-chan, I need to tell you something!"

Ayame looked a bit surprised before leaning in, and Naruto made to cup his hand to his mouth, so she turned to present an ear. It was, without question, shocking as she felt a pair of soft lips on her cheek, which very quickly went away. The entire stall was gaping as a blushing Naruto gave his biggest grin, "Thanks for the ramen, Ayame-chan!"

The boy then ran off to the Hokage tower, eager for a mission to take on like the awesome shinobi he was. Kakashi followed, tears of pride streaking down his face. The other two members of Squad 7 recovered from their shock as they realized a tab for nearly 20 bowls of ramen was expected to be paid, if a grinning Teuchi was any indicator. As for Ayame, she brought a hand to her flushed cheeks, a small smile on her lips. She then turned to make sure they were fully stocked for dinner later, while her father gladly pilfered the money from the weeping genin; after all, Naruto would be coming for dinner too, most likely with that nice Iruka fellow.

Ayame hummed a happy tune as she thought about the smiling, surprising shinobi and how both their worlds changed that fateful day when Naruto fell in love with ramen—and the family that showed him the what it meant to be loved.

_Fin_

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Eothr: Damn that was fluffy at the end…I'm actually in tears as I write this (T^T)…

Rhea: *sniff* So beautiful…please read and review!


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